


A Nightly Visit

by historiareiss



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-03
Updated: 2017-09-03
Packaged: 2018-12-23 08:32:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11986113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/historiareiss/pseuds/historiareiss
Summary: Cersei pays Jaime a nightly visit. Unfortunately, it is not what he expects, though.





	A Nightly Visit

The woman moves silently through the twisted hallways of the Red Keep as though she had always been there and her steps were guided by experience beyond her years. She wants to run, though.  
The dire situation she's in would excuse some haste, but she slows her pace nonetheless, for ears and eyes are everywhere in here.  
_This is not the Rock_ , she tells herself, _and the Spider is no friend of mine_. The wretched eunuch might have informed her of this secret passage that led straight to the White Tower only to catch her in the act of using it to visit Jaime, so that he could report to Robert of her late night's escapades whenever he deemed most convenient. She wouldn't be so stupid to trust him. But her brother needed to know.  
Something terrible had happened.  
The passageway leads, indeed, where Varys said it would. Cersei wouldn't expect any less from the Master of Whisperers of the Mad King. The troubles, though, are all but finished.

"Who's there?" A Kingsguard inquires, as soon as he can spot the hooded figure of Cersei Lannister in the darkness.  
The Queen thinks she's out of luck, considering that of all the seven knights serving in Robert's Kingsguard, it happens that the least amiable of them all is on duty tonight;  
Ser Mandon Moore, a friendless, cold man. She seems to recall that Jaime spoke of him once, and described him as the most dangerous of the Kingsguard after himself.

Cersei wouldn't be scared away by the likes of him, though. She is the daughter of Tywin Lannister, after all, whose roar was enough to shake the Seven Kingdoms.  
An ugly lifeless man such as that one has no power to frighten her.

"I am the Queen. I must see my brother at once." She declares, pulling back the hood that shadowed her face so that the knight would recognize her.  
Moore remains unfazed, though. He doesn't even bow down as it would be expected of any knight who finds himself in the presence of a queen.  
_This one is no knight_ , Cersei observes dryly, _he is a shadow with a cloak_.

"Visits are not allowed past midnight. You can see your brother tomorrow."

Cersei pauses for a second just to take in this man's nonsense, in complete disbelief.  
"Have you forgotten your place, ser? I am your Queen and you will step aside. _Now_."  
Ser Mandon looks down on her like a hound being pestered by a fly. That kind of arrogance was more than Cersei could bear.

"Do you want me to inform the King of your disrespect for your Queen? I shall have your wish granted at once."  
That pale shadow of a man doesn't flinch, but finally his lips part again to let out a low whisper in the night. "You can do that, aye, but then you will also have to explain why you needed to see your brother so urgently in the middle of the night. What will you say, then?"

Cersei's cheeks redden as if she's been slapped. She's about to forget herself and strike him across the face, when the flash of a silvery blade shining under the dim torchlight draws her attention and makes her falter. Only for a moment, though, for she soon realizes that the sword that just cut through the night air like a knife through butter is Jaime's, and it's now pointing at Moore's throat.  
_My knight_ , she sighs, as her eyes revel at the sight of her twin brother standing between her and the man who dared to threaten her.

"You're off duty, ser. I will take it from here." He says, with his easy smile.  
Even now, with a sword at his throat, Mandon Moore is as untroubled as ever. He just lifts his dull eyes on Cersei's flushed face one last time before backing off into the night.

 _One more askew look and my brother will slice your throat, ser_.

Cersei grins triumphantly like a child who's just gotten her way, and for a moment, she even forgets the real reason she came all the way down here from the Queen's chambers and almost risked getting caught in her treachery by a kingsguard.

Jaime, the fool that he is, immediately assumes that she just missed him too much to sleep and that she had taken all that risk and that pain just to find her way to him through the night.  
Cersei sighs and stirs impatiently in his embrace, before she pulls away and parts her lips to shatter his delusions.

"Something horrible happened. Is there a room where we can speak without being heard?"

Jaime flashes her one single wary look. He wants to hear more of the matter that troubles his sister, but knows that she won't speak until she is certain nobody is eavesdropping on them. This only makes him all the more uneasy, but he escorts her to Ser Preston Greenfield's lodgings all the same. His sworn brother was on duty that night, probably still trying to prevent the King from drunkenly shaming himself in front of the whole court.

"What is it, that you cannot even wait till tomorrow? You know you don't have to lie to me." He teases her, then promptly seizes her by the arms and runs his right hand across her bodice, and even lower, down her thighs.  
She tries to wrench free from his grasp, hissing and muttering a few curses under her breath, calling him a witless fool again and again. They had never done it in the White Tower and Jaime doesn't dislike the idea. He knows that Cersei has come to him for that sole purpose, after all. She had left the merrymaking of the Great Hall and the King's stinking side only to be with him on that lonely night.  
_Why not oblige the Queen, then?_  
  
"I am with child, you idiot!" she spits, still struggling to keep quiet, still trying not to let the rage get the best of her. Jaime lets her go then, his arms fall painfully down his sides.  
He doesn't move or say anything until Cersei regains her composure after their power struggle.

Even then, she keeps her eyes down, though, suddenly unable to withstand Jaime's fiery gaze.  
" _His_ child?" He asks, in a low groan that anticipates his wrath.  
Queen Cersei nods briefly, then turns away in shame. She had promised him she would be careful and take the proper measures to prevent unwanted pregnancies, but that night there was nothing she could do. The King wouldn't accept another sip of wine until his other thirst would be satisfied, no matter how sweetly she pleaded. And sadly, there was no other woman available at hand that night.  
Not to mention that getting her hands on moontea is practically impossible, constantly watched and followed as she is.

She doesn't explain all this to her brother, though. She doesn't need to look even more wretched and vulnerable in his eyes than she already does. She would rather bear Jaime's wrath than paint herself in the pitiful hues of victimhood. _A lion is hardly a victim. A stag, on the other hand..._

And since they cannot kill Robert himself - albeit Jaime wouldn't hesitate -, Cersei wonders if perhaps the little stag in her womb wouldn't be a much easier victim to take their rage out on.  
She will need Jaime's help for that too, though.

Not a sound pervades the White Tower of the Kingsguard. All the brothers are either sleeping or on duty tonight. In the far distance, the feast held in the Red Keep goes on and on, and will probably drag on till the early lights. Jaime doesn't look at her, he just paces the length between the door and the bed of Ser Preston incessantly, like a restless lion in captivity.

"So what did you come here for, to give me the great news yourself? Do you expect my congratulations?" He snorts, annoyed that she would even think such thing.  
His laughter soon curdles on his lips as his bitter grin twists to bare the teeth underneath. Cersei has never seen his brother so irate, not since Father took her to King's Landing, leaving him behind.  
He kicked and screamed that day, but he was no more than a boy back then. He didn't scare anyone, back then.

"I came because I need your help. I am afraid, Jaime."

"I am not a bloody midwife, sister."

She's sick of his indignant humor when she snaps, "Help me get rid of it. I do not want it."

"What?" His question comes out in a feeble whisper, barely audible. Finally they lock eyes again and Cersei confirms what she's just said with a steadfast gaze.

"You want to get rid of the baby?" Jaime is so dumbstruck that he draws near her, not daring to raise his voice anymore. Murdering the heir to the throne in his mother's womb is the worst type of treason.  
Not that he gives a fig about it, anyway. He just wants to be sure.

Cersei nods, staying where she is. "Nobody knows yet. But my handmaids will notice if we don't act at once. They have my every move monitored, even how often I use the privy.  
It won't be long before they find out I haven't had my moonblood yet."

"What will you have me do?" He interrupts her before she provides any further details, as eager as he is to get the unpleasant matter over with.  
"Go to Flea Bottom and find a woman to cleanse me. Tell her she'll be paid handsomely for her service, and even more so if she keeps her mouth shut." Cersei says, as she struggles to keep her hands still, her nails digging deeper in her palms, nervous as she is, until Jaime takes them in his and kisses them.

He doesn't say "sorry", though. He knows that an open display of his understanding would be mistaken as pity by his prideful sister, so he says nothing.  
He just kisses her hands where they are battered, and mutters that he will do anything she asks against her perfect fingers.  
_Anything_. _First thing in the morning_ , he promises.

The knight then escorts her back to the Queen's rooms in the Red Keep, the ones Jaime knows all too well, and there he leans in for another kiss.

"I'll bring her to you on the morrow. And by candlelight, it'll be no more than a memory." Jaime breathes on her lips.

"And hopefully, a moonturn from now," Cersei adds, "it will be _our_ baby I carry inside".


End file.
